La campagne française: si douce

The country side is very beautiful here.  There are alot of forests, hills, and mountains in the south of france.  Jane and I spent the weekend hiking and driving through the baby mountain passes (St. Victoire and the pass between Cassis and Le Ciotat).  The "woods" of france are SO different than Minnesota.  I remember a passage in Shogun where the author describes the countryside of Japan and how every inch of the terrain has been manicured by man.  I feel the same way about France...more wild perhaps but almost everything has been touched by man.

We were hiking through a beautiful forest yesterday on Sainte Victoire.  The trees were beautiful but on inspection it was obvious that nearly every one had been trimmed.  It wasn't a wild forest.  It was a garden forest.  Every forest I have been through in France is like this: beautiful but, effectively, man made.  Most forests in Minnesota are so wild that you can barely penetrate them.  One can easily sense the forest primieval in a spot like the boundary waters.  I think it must be hard to have that experience in France.

Likewise with insects.  Minnesota seems thick with an insect world but France seems to have somehow avoided our crawling friends.  How is this possible?  One of my favorite features of southern france is the shuttered windows.  Too hot at night?  Just open the window and let the world in.  No screens.  Just nature.  Where the heck are the critters?  Why aren't french households overriden by insects?

I appreciate the wild of Minnesota but frankly it is sure nice to have nature be so hospitable for awhile.